Rapp’s Bill to Create Rural Health Care Grant Program Clears Senate Committee

October 30, 2025

HARRISBURG — Rep. Kathy L. Rapp (R-Warren/Crawford/Forest), Republican chair of the House Health Committee, announced her bill to create the Rural Health Care Grant Program in Pennsylvania unanimously passed the Senate Institutional Sustainability and Innovation Committee.

House Bill 157 will provide grant money, which will be determined through the budgetary process, to help pay for the education debt of practitioners who work for an entity located in a rural county or in a designated medically underserved area.

According to a recent survey from the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, 62 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are considered “full” or “partial” health professional shortage areas for primary care. In addition, nearly half of women in rural counties live more than 30 minutes from a birthing hospital, with at least 19 rural Pennsylvania hospitals transitioning away from providing obstetric care in the past two decades.

“We are in the midst of a nationwide health care workforce emergency,” Rapp said. “The Commonwealth currently does not have enough medical providers to meet Pennsylvania’s growing health care needs, leaving rural communities’ and underserved areas’ access to care in a perilous state.

“The more we can do to help bring providers to these areas, the better off this Commonwealth will be.”

House Bill 157 now heads to the full Senate for consideration. If approved without amendment, it would head to the governor’s desk.


Representative Kathy Rapp
65th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Jake Gillespie
717.772.9834
RepRapp.com / Facebook.com/RepRapp